Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994 TAG: 9403050082
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The relationship between mothers and their children is at the center of the story. In the Hollywood sense, it's a "woman's picture." To anyone who's expecting conventional conflicts and resolution, it's long, slow, boring and trite.
Angie (Geena Davis) is a young woman from an Italian family in Bensonhurst. She doesn't really love her boyfriend Vinnie (James Gandolfini), but when she\ discovers that she's pregnant, she likes the idea. Marriage is iffy at best.\ After all, her best friend Tina (Aida Turturro) is trapped with a real jerk\ and two sons. It's not hard to imagine an identical future with Vinnie.
Then she meets Noel (Stephen Rea), who's richer and more refined. But\ something's a little off-center about him too. Her father (Philip Bosco) and\ step-mother (Jenny O'Hara) present more problems than they solve.
Todd Graff's script is tightly focused on the star, but this is not Geena\ Davis's best work. At times she has an accent that's so thick you could use to\ fill potholes; at other times, it vanishes. With the exception of Noel, the\ supporting characters are familiar New York cliches who spend most of their\ time screaming at each other.
There is comparatively little physical action in the film and director\ Martha Coolidge lets the pace move slowly. As her track record - from "The Joy\ of Sex" to "Rambling Rose" - shows, she has made misses and hits. Here, she\ lets the inherent emotionalism of the story run rampant. The ending goes beyond\ shamelessness, and if that weren't enough, she tacks on a preachy little speech\ to underline the message for those who didn't get it the first time.
Angie * 1/2
A Hollywood Pictures release playing at the Valley View Mall, 104 min. Rated R for strong language, subject matter, brief nudity.
by CNB